In Syracuse, N.Y., former president Bill Clinton was discussing New Orleans’s dilemma when someone described the speaker’s comments. Had they been in the same place when the remarks were made, Clinton said, “I’m afraid I would have assaulted him.”

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3 thoughts on “Racism”

What we have here is not racism. It’s classism. The people with money, with cars got out ahead of the storm. Those left behind were the poor and the old and the sick. There were plenty of white people in the Superdome and Convention Center and on the freeways and elsewhere, but they were too poor or too sick or too frail to leave.
What does it say when the Senate’s first order of business next Tuesday is to permanantly repeal the Estate Tax for the already rich? The people left behind in NOLA are “welfare mothers” and “drains on society”, so Bush and his rich friends see no need to hurry in helping these “blights on society”. And if it appears to the TV watching audience that most of the faces are black, well that’s all the better to hide the true targets of the wealthy. The Republicans love blacks – when they are rich! Witness Condoleeza going out and spending a thousand dollars on shoes while NOLA drowns and starves. This isn’t about white skin or black skin, it’s about those with money and those without.

I’ve heard that argument before ascap scab, and I reject it. Republicans despise blacks and poor people. Racism and classism are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are mutally reinforcing pathologies.
Condeleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas and Armstrong Williams are self loathing blacks who despise blacks. I see no reason to gild the lily by describing racism as anything other than what it is.
By any name is has the same stench as the decaying bodies in the streets of New Orleans.

ascap is right. This is primarily a class issue. Are there racists in the GOP? Of course. But the GOP is not inherently racist (it merely attracts racists). However, the GOP is anti-poor to the core.

Whether Powell and Rice are self-loathing blacks is really irrelevant. What is true is that most Republicans have no problem with them. Indeed, if most blacks were like Powell and Rice, most Repubs would be thrilled.

I find it counter-productive to continue to insist that Republicans are racist. Too many Democrats fling this accusation with the same vigor with which Repubs accuse us of “hating America” and “siding with the terrorists”. All it takes is to be falsely accused of something terrible to permanently poison your view the accuser.

As for Bill Clinton, he’s a sleazey opportunist. Hastert is nothing but a Sista Souljah — an easy target for Clinton to score political points by attacking. I am no fan of Hastert but he said nothing that was outrageous — we should seriously think twice about the wisdom of rebuilding a below-sea level city.

Now, his timing was terrrible. Hastert should have waited till a more opportune time to raise the question. But the issue is legitimate.

Meanwhile Clinton runs interference for Bush, who deserves a thousand times the anger Clinton pretended to feel towards Hastert.